The invention pertains to a method for treating a vertigo or the like attack, as when afflicted with Meniere's disease.
Meniere's disease is a significant health problem, having an incidence now identified of 46 per 100,000 population, but the disease has eluded successful treatment for more than the century which has lapsed since Dr. Meniere described and identified the malady.* He observed that an otherwise perfectly healthy "auditory apparatus . . . can suddenly become the seat of functional disorders consisting in various kinds of noises"; that "these functional disorders . . . can give rise to incidents said to be cerebral, such as vertigo, giddiness, unsteady walk, spinning and falling, in addition to which they are accompanied by nausea, vomiting and a fainting state"; and that "these incidents, which are intermittent in form, are soon followed by ever increasing deafness." Many efforts have since been made to treat if not to solve the problem; and the various classes of medical, surgical and drug therapies have recently been summarized by Professor Schuknecht**, but no effective treatment or solution has yet been reported, and the professor concludes that it "is encumbent on all physicians to assess their personal therapeutic approaches to the treatment of Meniere's disease in light of the current knowledge and to keep abreast of new developments in this rapidly moving field of research." FNT *Gaz. Med. Paris, 16:597 to 601, 1861 [English translation by M. Atkinson, Acta Otolaryngol. (Suppl. 162)]. FNT **Schuknecht, H. F., "A Critical Evaluation of Treatments for Meniere's Disease," J.C.E.O.R.L. & Allergy, October, 1978, pp. 15-30.
Nystagmus is one of the symptoms of an attack of Meniere's disease, and it has been reported that "caloric irrigation during an attack can reverse the direction of the nystagmus, eliminate it, decrease its amplitude, not affect it, or increase its amplitude, depending upon the direction and magnitude of the nystagmus, and the duration and temperature of the irrigant."*** But the apparatus to perform such irrigation and to observe the nystagmus is complex laboratory equipment, not in any sense portable or adapted for use other than by and under control of the physician. Moreover, attacks of Meniere's disease come infrequently and unpredictably, so that the opportunity for the physician even to observe, if not to treat, his patient during the onset portion of an attack, which attack may last several hours, is so rare as to have thus far effectively precluded such treatment for the patient. FNT *** Paparella and Schumrich, Otolaryngology, Vol. II, p.441.